The working life of Museum of London

Some of you may remember from my last blog that I mentioned that the Museum of London websites were changing inline with our rebranding to bring together our  venues and values, with new names and logos. We have now completed phase one of redesigning and moving around content on our websites. You can check out our striking new logos and our redesigned websites at:

• www.museumoflondon.org.uk
• www.museumoflondon.org.uk/docklands
• www.museumoflondon.org.uk/archaeology

In phase two and three, we will be auditing all our websites, holding audience evaluations to find out what our visitors think, and planning and implementing the migration of all our websites into one single site. This will involve analysis of our current website structures and planning the future architecture and redesigning of all the templates within our websites, including our microsites.

We would love to find out what you think of the websites and how it might develop in the future. So tell us what you think of the sites and the new ‘tabs’ that combine all our three venues together by sending me your comments to: webmanager@museumoflondon.org.uk.

Please note that we are aware some things may not display properly or some links may be broken, but please bear with us while we go through this transition period.

Thank you for all your continued support.

I’m really excited to be able to tell you about a new project that’s recently gone live - ‘Podcasts from the past‘. It’s a series of ten audio descriptions of objects in the London before London and Medieval galleries at the Museum of London.

You can find Podcasts from the Past on iTunes with this link (or search for “podcasts from the past” or for artist “museum of london”), or point your browser at the RSS feed. You can also find out more about the individual podcasts and download the files directly at Podcasts from the past.
This project is part of the Museum’s Community & Audience Development Inclusion programme, and is managed by Inclusion Officer Lucie Fitton. I’ll let Lucie, our Inclusion Officer, introduce it in her own words:

Here at the Museum of London we wanted to do two things through this projects. One, make a step towards providing more resources for our visually impaired visitors (existing and potential). Two, by working with a group of real Londoners (by that we mean normal people living in this city, and not museum staff or specialists) to create them, we would be offering an interpretation of the collections that would be relevant and interesting to more people. Yes, these podcasts aim to describe museum objects to people who may not be able to see them clearly, but by opening your ears everyone can understand London’s story in a new way.

It was a huge task for anyone, let alone a group of people who hadn’t met, hadn’t visited the Museum before, hadn’t created audio description and hadn’t used recording and editing technology. The 10 podcasts were created in eight weeks, with just one day of workshop time each week.

Luckily we had some fantastic help from the experts. A couple of our curators showed the group around the galleries and provided invaluable advice about the objects. We then had training with Vocaleyes who showed us the basics of describing for visually impaired people. We also got the chance to meet Kirin, who is visually impaired and helped dispel myths around what it is like. Once the scripts were written we then worked with podcast producers from SoundDelivery to record and edit the final podcast. It was lots of hard work, but great fun.

The seven participants of this project come from a wide variety of backgrounds and had many skills and talents to add to this project. We hope they walk away with many more. Thanks to Charles Clark, Ivan Bello, James Kelly, Keith Allen, Liam McAtamney, Simon Allen and Warren Thompson. Also a big thank you to Tony and Kirin from Vocaleyes, and Jude, Mark and Lee from SoundDelivery.

Lucie’s also previously written about her role as Inclusion Officer and Community projects at the Museum of London. You can also see photos from the podcast workshops, including photos of the objects, on our Flickr page.

I think it’s a lovely way to find out more about some objects you can visit in our galleries, so check them out and let us know what you think.

This project is to be launched soon and we’ll tell you all about it properly then, but in the meantime the Guardian have a podcast report on an inclusion project from the Museum of London called Podcasts from the Past, “which invited the long-term unemployed to provide audio descriptions of Museum of London exhibits”.

What goes into an exhibition like this?
A project team of many people across different departments in the Museum work together on exhibitions. These are just some of the different jobs that are needed to create Outside Edge at the Museum in Docklands.

Curator
Ajamu was the external curator of the exhibition so he chose the objects, wrote the storyline, wrote the exhibition text (object captions, panels etc) and was involved at every stage to approve the designs that the Museum’s designers created. He also came up with the programme for the exhibition’s study day and helped promote the exhibition through his many contacts.

Designers
Once the storyline and the objects were finalised, the designs were produced. The Museum’s head of design, Leigh Cain, developed the design concept for the display, the layout and even decided where each object should go in each showcase. Once this was done, Jayne Davis, one of our graphic designers, worked on the look of the exhibition – what the graphics would look like, the colours that would be used and how Ajamu’s text would appear on each caption and panel.

Once the designs had been approved, the designers had to talk to the Museum’s technicians to work out how exactly the display would be built and how the objects would be mounted.

Registrars and conservators
All the objects for the display were borrowed from people outside the Museum so our registrar, Nickos Gogolos, had to arrange this – sending out loan agreements to all the lenders, making sure all the objects were insured, arranging the collection of all the objects from their owners and keeping all the documentation updated so we had accurate records of everything we borrowed.

As the objects were mainly 2D paper items (posters, flyers and magazines) Eugenie Karen, our paper conservator, was responsible for checking the condition of each item as it came in and mounting each item on special board in preparation for display. Eugenie also discussed the mounting of objects with the technicians and designers so that items could be displayed in the most attractive way possible while ensuring they would not get damaged.

Technicians and electricians
Technicians Cliff Thomas and Hilmi Nevzat built the display. They made plinths on which the showcases would stand, put up temporary walls on which to hang all the posters, graphic panels and other wall-mounted objects, made mounts for all the objects, framed all the posters and another hundred tasks besides. It’s a very important job and requires a great deal of skill and accuracy.

Andy Murray and Seniye Niazi were the electricians for the display. They put in all the lighting, wired up the gallery so the sound track for the display would play, installed a plasma screen and fitted up a listening post where visitors could listen to examples of reggae music.

Learning
Carol Seigel, our adult learning officer at Museum in Docklands, had the task of organising the Outside Edge study day, along with the curator, Ajamu. Ajamu chose all the speakers and wrote the programme for the day and Carol had to make sure that everything ran smoothly on the actual day.

Press and marketing
This team are vital for making sure that the public are aware of museum events and exhibitions. Stacey Witter, press officer, contacted newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations to promote the exhibition. We received good coverage on radio, in newspapers and magazine and in listings. Alison Parry, marketing officer, worked with Jayne Davis, the graphic designer, to produce a flyer advertising the exhibition and the study day, an email invitation for the opening launch and an exhibition web page on the Museum in Docklands website: www.museumindocklands.org.uk/outsideedge.

Special events
This team were responsible for organising the opening party, which was part of the programme of Late Openings for the Museum in Docklands, as it fell on the first Thursday of the month. Melanie Pay and Donald Mullis discussed the event with Ajamu to find out what he wanted to happen during the evening. The event was a great success – there were speeches, a DJ and a bar and over 240 people attended.

Visitor services team
The front of house staff at Museum in Docklands also had an input. They were consulted on how the exhibition should be installed as they had to close off various areas of the Museum to allow the technicians and electricians to work and so the objects could be installed in a secure area away from the public. They also were kept informed about the content of the exhibition so they could be prepared to answer visitors’ questions and make sure the exhibition operated smoothly on a daily basis.

Head of Public Programmes
Darryl McIntyre, Head of Public Programmes for the Museum of London Group (of which Museum in Docklands is a part) is ultimately in charge of all exhibitions, events and other public programmes at the Museum. He initiated the project with Ajamu and had final say on the exhibition content and how it was displayed. All the text was read and approved by him and all the proofs had to be given to him to edit for style, spelling and grammar.

Project manager
My job was to coordinate the work of everyone involved in the exhibition and make sure that everything ran according to timetable and within budget. I also helped to edit the text, checked proofs of all the graphics, sourced the film footage that played on the plasma screen and liaised with the film editor, organised the content of the listening post, helped to install the objects and even some emergency painting of the display. A lot of my time was spent writing documents (design brief, film brief etc.), emailing people, making phone calls and having meetings with various members of the project team.

By project manager Meriel Jeater (curator, Department of Early London History and Collections)

Outside Edge: a journey through black British lesbian and gay history explores the history of the black LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community in Britain, with a focus on London. It publicly commemorates people and events important to the black LGBT community, celebrates its achievements and highlights the issues it has faced in the past and still faces today. The exhibition documents the emergence of the black LGBT community from the 1970s and demonstrates its contribution to campaigns for fair representation and against homophobia, as well as celebrating the black LGBT cultural, club and music scene.

So why is a curator in the Department of Early London History project managing a display about life in modern London?
At the Museum of London our jobs can become quite flexible and members of staff often get the opportunity to become involved in projects that, on the surface, have little to do with their everyday jobs. It’s all part of staff development and gives us a chance to learn new skills, work with different people across the organisation and externally, and gain experience.

The Museum was contacted back in March 2007 by an organisation called the rukus! Federation, who wanted to put on an exhibition at the Museum in Docklands about the history of the black LGBT community, a story that is not well known and rarely covered by museums and similar institutions. Together with the Museum of London’s Head of Public Programmes (Darryl McIntyre), Ajamu, the co-founder of rukus!, wrote a proposal and a business case for the exhibition, which was approved by the Museum’s exhibitions committee. Once the concept of the exhibition had been given the green light, they needed someone at the Museum to organise the exhibition and a project team to produce it.

I was chosen as project manager and worked closely with Ajamu and the museum project team over seven months to put the exhibition together.

What goes into an exhibition like this?
A project team of many people across different departments in the Museum work together on exhibitions.

In my next post I’ll talk about some of the different ways people across the museum were involved in the project.

Below are some images of objects from the exhibition. Click to view larger versions hosted on Flickr.

The Museum of London received the Bronze Award at the 2007 Visit London Awards in the category for its exhibition Belonging: voices of London’s refugees.

Belonging (October 2006 - February 2007) was a collaborative production that formed part of the Refugee Communities History Project, led by the Evelyn Oldfield Unit in partnership with Museum of London, London Metropolitan University and eighteen refugee community organisations.

It also featured work created as part of the London Museums Hub Refugee Heritage Programme. For more information about Belonging, visit www.museumoflondon.org.uk/belonging.

The Gold Award went to the London International Festival of Theatre for Eat London, a major event in Trafalgar Square in which community groups created a model of central London in food. The Silver Award went to the Southbank Centre for The Overture, the grand reopening of the Royal Festival Hall.

Plans for 2008

Both Museum of London and Museum in Docklands have great plans for 2008. Here’s a sneak preview of what’s coming up this year…

Don’t forget late at both Museum of London and Museum in Docklands on the first Thursday of every month. When twilight descends unexpected events occur…giving people the chance to enjoy live performances, tours and music alongside relaxing with a drink at the bar! Check our Events page for updates.

MUSEUM OF LONDON

Weather Permitting: London’s changing climate

15 February - 20 April 2008

The state of the weather is in the forefront of the mind of the public, as Dr Johnson informs us, ‘when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.’ Museum of London launches its first display focusing on centuries of the capital’s climate change and weather reports.

The Big Smoke

1 July - 21 September 2008

One year on from the smoking ban, a display looking at the history of smoking in London. Using objects and images from the Museum of London’s collections the display will chart the history of smoking from the first introduction of tobacco to London, to the present day, following changes in attitude over the centuries. The display will also showcase different opinions on the current smoking ban and show its effects on London businesses and Londoners.

Caught in time – photo display to coincide with publication of book

2 October - 23 November 2008

A photographic display documenting a diverse range of old-style shops in London, taken during the 1970s and 1980s , and more recent photographs showing what happened to the shop sites after they closed. The high-quality, large scale photographs will be accompanied by recordings of interviews with the former shop owners and proprietors.

The hugely exciting £20.5 million redevelopment project to transform the lower galleries is underway and the noisy work about to commence. The upper galleries, London Before London, Roman London and Medieval London remain open throughout the refurbishment and a full programme of fantastic adult and family events continue.

MUSEUM IN DOCKLANDS

Outside Edge: A journey through Black British lesbian and gay history

7 February - 4 April 2008

This challenging display will publicly commemorate people and events important to the Black LGBT community. It will celebrate its achievements and highlight the issues it has faced in the past and still faces today. The display will document the emergence of the Black LGBT community from the 1970s and demonstrate its contribution to campaigns for fair representation and against homophobia, while also celebrating the vibrant Black LGBT cultural, club and music scene.

Jack the Ripper and the East End

15 May - 2 November 2008

Museum in Docklands is returning to the scene of London’s most infamous crimes, with its major new exhibition, Jack the Ripper and the East End. The exhibition will open a new path by looking at the human stories behind the penny-dreadful accounts. Bringing together the surviving original documents for the first time, including police files, photographs, and letters from the public, it will map the world which witnessed the murders and was transformed by them.

Museum in Docklands turns 5 this year and will be celebrating in the summer!

This week Mia asked me what does a typical week look like for me in my job. It got me thinking, now how do I actually explain what I do? My family and friends often ask me and I cannot explain that it is about legal compliance and stuff like that. Because they’ll say - now what exactly do you mean?

Now you’d think working for a museum means sitting in a stuffy place whole day. No, that is indeed far from the truth, because museums are about people out there (about you as readers and where you are) and getting to know more about you and other Londoners and inviting you to “own” this museum where we work for you and in your interests. But that also means that I do a lot of work with my colleagues inside the walls of the museum building.

I am very busy and do many interesting things. For example, I am at the moment arranging a lot of meetings with colleagues for one to one discussions on their progress with making equality and diversity happen in their departments. For example, last week the Head of Design (she puts up exhibitions that make breaking news on television) and I discussed how to bring in more volunteers from Black and Ethnic minorities and disabled people for training into her department where these communities are severely under-represented in museums in the UK. So we worked on a plan and agreed on a strategy to make this happen. I gave her some advice (where she can find the money and support for this ) and promised to be there for her to help her in achieving this as an important milestone for her department.

Sometimes, the solutions come as we speak and work and plan together. For example, another colleague of mine (who manages about 1 million urban objects - the largest in the world) and I got this idea that we could work with the Police Department to promote the importance of Archaeology skills in every day life of solving crimes, for example! His department already works very successfully with volunteers and vulnerable adults. So the two of us and his department are currently thinking through a plan for this for youth, especially London boys from cultural backgrounds that have been excluded from heritage.

I also established a relationship with the Diversity Manager of SOAS who is a disability champion and she has told me that SOAS serves a community of 400 languages; so we can see how we can strengthen a partnership that will attract more Londoners to come work for us. I also work on LGBT issues with the Tower Hamlets Council and have shared with our head of Schools and Learning, the “Schools Out” project, which is about working on sexuality issues with schools.

And, oops just got an email from a colleague in Press and Marketing who has come up with this absolutely fascinating idea of addressing new ideas about beauty in our London, Sugar and Slavery gallery! Now I’ve just been talking about this with a colleague who sits next to me works in the fashion industry, and she is very excited. Because you see there are still people who think women from Africa are ugly and research shows that this affects their chances to get work and be treated fairly. And did you know that we talk about these things in our London, Sugar and Slavery gallery at Museum in Docklands which you must go see! Now International Women’s Day is coming up next year in March, the archaeologists are arranging something exciting around objects found in London and what the diverse women around the world think of them…and then we may also have a new take on beauty and women. A fashion show perhaps? Or perhaps a fashion design workshop? What do you think? Want to come along?

Hi, my name is Jackie and I work as a curator in the Department of Early London History and Collections at the Museum of London.

My background is very much in archaeology. I come from Cork on the south coast of Ireland and came over to London after graduating with a BA in History and Archaeology at University College Cork. I then began working with the Museum of London’s archaeological unit, which was then known as the Department of Urban Archaeology (now the Museum of London Archaeological Service). I worked as a finds processor. This involved ‘processing’ all the objects found during an archaeological excavation – all the pottery, bricks, tiles, glass, metal objects and so on - have to be cleaned and catalogued and packaged appropriately before they can be given to the various specialists who will more fully identify and date them. This work is often done at the archaeological site and can involve a lot of cold and wet work in winter! However, I really enjoyed the job and it was a great way to learn about artefacts and about the history and archaeology of London.

Having done this for a few years I then became a building materials specialist, working with Roman and medieval bricks and tiles, building stone and plaster. I know it sounds like a strange job but it was very interesting. I worked with some great people and learned an enormous amount about the subject. After a few years I then moved to being a finds processing supervisor and worked on some amazing sites, including the excavation of the Roman amphitheatre at the Guildhall in the City of London and an excavation on the Roman waterfront at King William Street, on the north bank of the river Thames.

The latter site was particularly interesting for Roman artefacts, as although it is now inland from the river, in the Roman period it would have been part of the river bank. In the centuries in between the land has been reclaimed from the river, however if you dig deep enough it is still quite wet and boggy. This means that there is fantastic preservation of a wide range of materials – metals, but also organic materials such as wood and leather.

At the King William Street site, the timbers of the Roman quay were found intact, as well as the foundations of some of the buildings that stood on the quays. One of the most fascinating discoveries was that of three lead ingots – known as ‘pigs’ – which were found hidden under the floorboards of one of the buildings, thought to be a warehouse. The ingots came from lead mines in the Mendip hills in the Welsh/English borders and each was stamped with the name of the Emperor Vespasian. We will never know why someone hid them away but can only suppose that they were unloaded at the port in London and that someone saw an opportunity and hid them under the floorboards. Again for reasons we will never know, they failed to return and collect their booty and so it remained there for nearly 2000 years until the archaeologists came upon it. One of the ingots can now be seen on display in the Museum of London’s Roman gallery. The main thing I remember about them on site is how incredibly heavy they are and the difficulty we had in getting them out of the excavation trench and up to the van so that they could be taken to the Museum!

After supervising the finds work on a number of sites, I then got a job as a ’small finds’ specialist. This was a move to an in-door job (drier and warmer!) and involved identifying and writing reports about the objects - such as metal, bone and glass objects – that are found on an excavation. Initially I specialised in Roman objects, but later also looked at medieval and some post-medieval material too. This was a great job – very varied – and again a great way to learn about artefacts. I particularly enjoyed working with leather assemblages and was lucky enough to write reports on the 14th and 15th century leather objects excavated from a section of the defensive ditch that surrounded London, and the Roman leather shoes and other objects that were excavated at a large excavation at Cheapside in the City of London.

In 2005, the Museum was re-designing its medieval gallery and advertised for another curator to work on the project. I applied and luckily got the job. I was thrilled as I had always been interested in museums and their work and so it seemed like the perfect job for me as it combined all of the things that I’m really interested in! I am lucky enough to be able to say that I really love my job. It is fantastically varied and has already given me some amazing opportunities and experiences. Over the last two years the Museum has supported me as I have undertaken a Master’s degree in Museum Studies at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, which I have just finished.

In the last year I have also attended a conference in Virginia about museums with a placement at a museum in Richmond, VA, undertaken gallery tours and activities, co-curated an exhibition celebrating the 60th anniversary of Indian and Pakistani independence, and have also undertaken a courier trip to the USA.

It is a very varied job and you have to be prepared to do all sorts of things! Obviously we undertake things like tours in the galleries, or handling sessions with objects, but there are also many jobs that go on in the background, like cataloguing, putting objects away in our stores, cleaning objects and the displays in the galleries.

Did you know that one of the Museum of London’s visitor assistants was in the UK Big Brother 2007 household?

Jonty Stern popped back into the Museum in Docklands and the Museum of London to give personal guided tours of his favourite things at the museums.

Videos of Jonty’s tours are available online now at www.museumindocklands.org.uk/jonty and www.museumoflondon.org.uk/jonty. Check them out!

They’re also up on Google video - check out Jonty’s Museum of London tour; and Jonty’s Museum in Docklands tour.